Viewpoint explaining how housing policies such as rent control have more impact on the real estate market than foreign buyers

The government of Ontario has recently announced new policies intended to cool off its real estate market, imposing a 15% tax on foreign home buyers like the one enacted in 2016 in British Columbia, and also extending its rent control regulations. In Montreal, the opposition is asking the City to follow the example set by these two provinces. Quebec Finance Minister Carlos Leitão has said he is not interested in interfering with the market, and with good reason: This is precisely the kind of policy that contributes to the problem.

Research Paper on the impact of suburbanization on a region’s competitiveness

There is a strong relationship between suburbanization (pejoratively called “urban sprawl”), automobile use and the strong economic growth that has occurred in high-income nations since World War II. Millions of Canadian households were able to stop renting and begin accumulating their own equity as a result of the lower cost houses built on the less expensive land on and beyond the urban fringe. They were able to take advantage of a much larger array of employment and shopping opportunities because they could get anywhere in the metropolitan region in a comparatively short period of time, rather than the limited destinations that could be reached quickly on transit. In short, a world or a Montreal without cars or suburbs would be far less affluent.

Research Paper (in French with a bilingual executive summary) on the causes of the housing crisis in Quebec and solutions to solve it

If we analyze the housing crisis that has plagued Quebec since 2001 through the lenses of economic science, it can be attributed to a number of government policies that have distorted the proper workings of the province's housing market. Among other factors, rent control has discouraged the maintenance of existing units and the building of new ones. Quebec's housing regulations also throw numerous roadblocks in the way of tenant selection and the eviction of the worst tenants, which makes investment in housing less attractive.